We can't afford to ignore tuberculosis

For Gen-X'ers and younger folks, tuberculosis seemed to be a disease only in the history books. We haven't regularly encountered anyone dealing with the disease, merely hearing stories of people dying of a curious-sounding malady called "consumption." Tuberculosis is an airborne disease, putting us all at risk, but TB's shadow waned as other new and seemingly more immediate health threats gained prominence.

Fast forward to 2013, and we find ourselves on the crest of a crisis that many of us didn't see coming. This month, the World Health Organization and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria released a joint statement to the press proclaiming that "strains of tuberculosis with resistance to multiple drugs could spread widely" beyond the roughly 600,000 people suffering from those strains of TB around the globe. We've already seen a case here in Indiana 14 months ago. Moreover, the high rate of TB and HIV co-infection means that a backslide in dealing with TB puts our investment and progress in dealing with HIV at risk since TB is the leading killer of people worldwide coping with AIDS.

Coping with the level of TB illness we currently have, and preventing TB's spread, demands a minimum of $1.6 billion annually from the U.S. That would be an investment of about 23 cents per person on the planet, an amount that would not adversely affect our current domestic budget crisis. The U.S. must lead with this funding, using its powerful influence in the world to encourage robust support from many other countries. This is the way to ensure a level of treatment and prevention that will help the world adequately cope with a disease that disproportionately affects poorer women and children.

The good news is that goal to at least slow the epidemic has been met, marking a key Millennium Development Goal success. However, that progress will be quickly undermined if we neglect the reality that drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis - strains that are progressively tougher to treat, if they can be treated at all - are beyond our doorstep.

Past and current Indiana legislators on both sides of the aisle have shown awareness of and support for dealing with the intersection of poverty-related health issues, realizing that this is not a political issue, but a human issue for all of us.

World TB Day is March 24. For the health and safety of our neighbors, our families, and ourselves, we must take the threat of tuberculosis seriously and not back down from funding the solutions within our reach. The Global Fund must be supported. The crisis is now; we cannot wait.

Lisa Marchal

Senior Global Grassroots advocate with RESULTS

Indianapolis

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We can't afford to ignore tuberculosis

For Gen-X'ers and younger folks, tuberculosis seemed to be a disease only in the history books. We haven't regularly encountered anyone dealing with the disease, merely hearing stories of people